Regulatory framework for the development of the green supply chain: EU vs Serbia

Abstract

Business practice indicates that besides the economic and social motives, the orientation towards the usage of green initiatives within the supply chain is mostly determined by strong legislative regulations which exist within the field, and which get more complex as the time passes. However, there is no uniformity regarding the treatment of regulation importance for the usage of the green supply chain concept worldwide. The empirical evidence shows that the degree of regulation of this issue, with the biggest number of accompanying directives is the highest within the territory of Europe, i.e. EU, while, for example, economic reasons of using this concept are more dominant in the USA, with the less developed regulations, which come as second. The rest of the world still recognizes vaguely the importance of the green supply chain concept, thus setting its implementation within these parts of the globe at the beginning stage, and making the motives which drive the implementation pretty unclear and non-differentiated. Therefore, the issue of the regulatory framework which represents the development guideline for green initiatives within the supply chain is very complex and specific and represents the basic preoccupation of the analysis within this paper. The entire paper is divided into two parts. Within the first part of the paper chosen EU directives oriented towards the regulation of specific issues and areas of managing the green supply chain are treated in detail. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the review of the legislative framework which treats the identical field, only within the Republic of Serbia. Precisely, an analysis is carried out to which degree the Serbian regulatory framework recognizes, appreciates and encourages the implementation of green initiatives within the supply chain and what is the general position of that framework compared to the one set by the EU. The aim of the paper is to identify the compatibility degree of the Serbian regulatory framework and the one set by the EU, as well as to recognize potential incompatibilities or shortcomings within the system of Serbian regulation which defines the green initiatives. Since the ultimate strategic goal of Serbia is to become a full member of the EU, the highest possible degree of harmonization of these two regulatory systems is needed, which shall be checked by the analysis within this paper.